Customer Reviews

Governor Ramage R.N

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
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This is the fourth book in Pope's Ramage series (see my reviews of "Ramage, Drumbeat, The Triton Brig"). I have enjoyed the first three a lot. This one, however, was a disappointment. First off, there was a storm. Pope has a way of never being able to say anything in a few pages that he can say in 50 and this interminable storm must have made Noah himself shudder. I really wish he would have just landed Ramage and crew on the island and gotten on with the story. Well, finally, he does. The action against the Spaniards on the island is fine (no spoilers!), but hardly kept me spell-bound. I think Pope could have made it much more interesting. More action and less detail would have made this a better story. Finally, there is a court martial. We see that Ramage will have a future in the Royal Navy.

This book is not a typical Royal Navy book. It's more of an adventure rather than war novel. It's fine, but too long.

Lash yourself to your reading chair and let Lieutenant Lord Ramage steer you through the most intense hurricane you'll experience in scores of Atlantic crossings. The description is so long and detailed that it's reminiscent of Patrick O'Brian (Aubrey/Maturin).

The book's ostensibly a mystery. And it's a taut one involving the obvious Caribbean bounty - pirate treasure. There's more characterization of Ramage in this book than in some of the previous ones, but it's more C.S. Forester (Hornblower) than O'Brian, despite the magnitude of Ramage's logistical and management nightmares. If you like wilful British sailors solving maritime mysteries, you could do worse than David Donachie's Privateersman series.

This 4th volume picks up the events in the eastern Caribbean following Lt. Ramages's FREEBOOTER adventure. You really should read this series in order, if only because at first opportunity some character will recapitulate the previous volume's heroics. In this fast-paced story Ramage endures 1797 convoy duty, suffers from his family's nemesis again (RAMAGE #1), sees a new heartthrob, spots a skulking privateer, is terrorized by a hurricane, hunts treasure, obtains a prize of no interest, is subject to another court martial, and pursues an ugly vendetta. This time out Pope teaches us about convoying, the muster book, hurricane colors and frights, estimating distances at sea, ship weights, and the then value of gold.

Pope writes pretty well, with great pace, plot, and crystal clear action. The structure of the stories is dramatic, moving from small to large troubles with pauses for strained humor. Scenes are dead on, but the overall plot is so improbable you don't want to think on it. His characters are interesting but so predictably one-sided you soon learn to recognize the clues who will turn out good or bad. An authorial tic is interrupting long climactic action sequences with dry disquisitions on naval minutiae that could easily have been put in the slow parts instead. Or perhaps Pope is trying to show the thought processes of a somewhat naive leader who is at his best only in angry action (vide his model, Hornblower). Pope doesn't give away upcoming events in his chapter headings (none), unlike Kent's stories of Bolitho. The language is unoffensive; the blood and guts of battle is simply not strongly felt, and we never learn whether Ramages's new infatuations actually betray his first love. The characters' emotions are restrained, like a contemporary painting by Ingres or David rather than the horror of Goya or Blake. The book design by Paperwork is a fine job. (368 pp only.) Hardback copies of Ramage are way up in value.

I've read and enjoyed a number of Dudley Pope's non-fiction works but came late to the Ramage series. They are enjoyable books in many ways, but Ramage as a character is not overly appealing. He simply has no faults, unless you consider scratching his battle scar when he's nervous a fault. How can you have a heroic character without the possibility of failure?

You can't compare Ramage and the other standing characters in the series to Patrick O'Brian's Capt. Aubrey and Dr. Maturin, for example, because there simply is no comparison. Their complexity, humor and intellect are far beyond Pope's abilities. Ramage will do, but only till O'Brian is reincarnated.

The fourth Ramage carries on with the tradition of highly entertaining naval action . The dialogue, descriptions of scenes and actions, and character behavior are first rate. The hurricane scene is what reminds me of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt. I've not read a better account of existence in the middle of a hurricane, rivals the best Pitt action scenes.

Lieut. Nicholas Ramage, commander of the Triton brig, has had an adventurous career: Rescuing damsels in distress in Italy, espionage in the Med, putting privateers out of business in the Caribbean, it's just one thing after another. Now he's at Barbados, joining the escort of a convoy to Jamaica -- which is also carrying Rear Admiral Goddard, implacable enemy of his father (the admiral, who is also an earl) and therefore of Nicholas himself. He deals with a very subtle French privateer, befriends a French nobleman (and his beautiful daughter, of course), survives a hurricane (which is one of the best extended descriptions of a major storm at sea in the Age of Sail that I have read), gets the survivors to a safe island (where he's proclaimed the tongue-in-cheek "governor"), and ends up with a few hundredweight of pirate treasure for his trouble. And then has to make it through his second court martial in four novels, though this one may spell the end of the generation-long vendetta against his family. It's a good, believable, well-told story, with an engaging supporting cast, terrific dialogue, and a real feel for the sea.

I know these are older novels and I'm just catching up, but Dudley Pope was a great writer and I am really enjoying his books. On the plus side I don't have to wait for new editions.

This book is very similar to the first three books in this series: some good action, so-so dialogue and characterization, and a couple of brief (fortunately) romantic scenes that are so bad that it is hard to believe that Pope's editor and friends did not give him the advice to either change these scenes dramatically or ditch them altogether. Maybe they did and he just didn't listen. Anyway, there is some good action in this book, although there is less battle action than in the previous books. There is a truly great scene where Ramage and his crew are fighting to keep their ship afloat during a hurricane. The hurricane scene is one that has been done many times in this genre, but Pope does it very well in this book. Pope spent a lot of time sailing around the Caribbean and he obviously accumulated a lot of knowledge of the area; he does a great job describing the islands. Ramage makes some clever legal and political moves to try and defend himself from the attacks of his enemy, the evil Admiral Goddard. At times this book almost reminded me of an episode of JAG (which isn't really a bad thing). In summary, this is a pretty entertaining read, but I hope that in future installments Pope stops having Ramage fall in love with a new girl in every book only to completely forget about her and fall in love with a new girl in the next book. (I know Ramage is supposed to have a bad memory but give us a break!)

Well, annoyances exist in the Ramage series, the same annoyances cropping up with monotonous regularity in all the books I've read so far. But for all that, they're decent adventure stories to while away a quiet weekend with. They're less heavy on the naval detail than Patrick O'Brian's books, the language is accessible, the plots flow along and the characters are mostly sympathetic (except for the boo-hiss obvious villains). The hero might be a stereotype, but he's a fun one who's well-drawn.

"Governor Ramage RN" sees Lieutenant Lord Nicholas Ramage in command of the brig Triton. He joins an escort convoy for merchant shipping in the Caribbean commanded by his family's enemy, Admiral Goddard. Strange events ensue as one of the convoy vessels is attacked by French privateers in search of its "cargo", and then a hurricane strikes . . . Can Ramage survive the hurricane and save his ship? Can he hold his crew and passengers together against the twin threats of the Spanish and buried treasure? Can he save his neck from the noose as Admiral Goddard moves to destroy him? Read this improbable but exciting tale to find out.
Those annoyances I mentioned . . . Pope has an unfortunate tendency to dump in the detail that shows he's done his historical homework, often at inappropriate moments. There will always be the occasional point-of-view from another character, but only for the purposes of physically describing and then praising and/or worshipping Ramage. And the "romance" angle - these books are so obviously written by a man - that has Ramage "fall in love" with the nearest available young woman despite the existence of his almost-fiancee, complete with painful dialogue and cringe-worthy physical details, yet remains coy about exactly what Ramage gets up to out of Gianna's sight. But as annoying as these things can be, I still do urge you to try these books - they might not bother you at all!

i reluctantly put Hornblower aside after the first four or five books- he's just too depressing and insecure. He has no self esteem or humor.
Ramage is like me- no one gets his jokes. i just wish i had his leadership skills and ability to devise a plan in the heat of battle.He does remind one of Hornblower somewhat.
i like Pope's explanations of nautical lore- not too cleverly woven into the story, but educational and interesting nonetheless. i like Ramage's wandering thought processes that always bring him insight just in the nick of time. What i don't like is the weekly-tv-series device of a new romantic interest in each book. It makes Ramage seem wishy-washy and disloyal,easily distracted by a pretty face, even if she happens to be a friend of his original ladylove. i can find faults with the stories just like the snobby reviewers who like to show off on this website, but i love a good sea tale and having run out of Patrick O'Brian novels, i'm committed to the rollicking Ramage series- damn the expense!